Highland Gold upbeat on improved resources and reserves

Highland Gold Mining announced the results of an updated audit of mineral resources and ore reserves at the Mnogovershinnoye (MNV) mine on Monday, which was conducted by Micon International and took into account data from near-mine exploration conducted in 2017, as well as updated mining parameters.

The AIM-traded firm said the new ore reserve estimate supported the extension of MNV's life-of-mine to the year 2029, compared to the previous forecast of 2022.

Additionally, a “significant increase” in mineral resources created the potential to add “substantially more” reserves in the future.

Gold contained in ore reserves at proven and probable levels as at 1 January 2018 increased to 771,569 ounces, from the estimate of 452,866 ounces published last year.

The reserve grade was lowered from 5.5 g/t to 2.7 g/t, which the board said reflected lower cut-off grades and an increase in ore volume from 2.7 million tonnes to 9.1 million tonnes.

Highland said the new reserve grade was in line with the average grade mined at MNV in recent years.

“Highland Gold continues to conduct near-mine exploration at MNV, both on the main licence areas and on three adjacent greenfield licences acquired over the past two years - Zamanchivaya, Kulibinskaya, and Vilkinskaya,” the Highland Gold board said in its statement.

“Work on the new licences carried out in 2018 included over 70,000 m3 of trenching, as well as core drilling at Zamanchivaya and Kulibinskaya.

“Logging and sampling are in progress.”